‘Legalization of authors’

"FORESTRY{BLACK TEXT}-KTIMATOLOGY-LEGALIZATION OF AUTHORS." Every time I see this sign on a country road I go down sometimes I try stepping into the shoes of a foreigner and wonder what they might make of it. For those of us who live in Greece, we understand that it's obviously advertising a property management office that can check whether a plot of land is classified as forestland, manage land registry issues and of course legalize the deeds (this last part is what the wonderful phrase "legalization of authors" is supposed to mean).

But this sign also explains why land is still relatively cheap. It is because when you buy land, you're also buying uncertainty - lots of it. Both before and after your purchase: before, because you have to make sure that the property is not forestland, that no streams pass through it, that it does not have any buried antiquities, and of course...